The 2007 ATP tennis season is upon us with the season beginning with tournaments in Adelaide, Chennai and Doha. Adelaide is an appropriate place to start, given the nature of the tournament this year - the first to use the round-robin format.

How will round-robin play out?
Sports Magician is against the introduction of round-robin tournaments on the tour, although at an “experimental” stage and not yet to be seen at Masters Series events or Grand Slams. The possibility for dead matches is clear to see, and will undoubtedly happen on many occasions. The idea that you either win or go home puts an edge on each and every match. Taking this away does not benefit the fan, or even the players. During a gruelling season, there are often times when a player “tanks” a match here or there, regardless of how obvious it may or may not be, even if the intention is not there to do so, sometimes the body or mind doesn’t allow anything different. Now that players know they can lose and still possibly go through to the latter stages, it provides a different slant on the mentality and mindset of players. Even if it is just subconscious, it will be evident during the season.

The ATP state that their research indicates tennis fans favour of round-robin events, it would be interesting to know their results. Visit any message board with passionate tennis fans presenting their views, and those who oppose round-robin far outweigh those in favour. Furthermore, it could even be said that a fair portion of those in favour are simply waiting to see how things play out before giving a definitive judgment, rather than believing the change will be a genuine improvement.

The move is for sponsors and TV primarily, and the ATP will fail in their attempts to dress it up as anything other than that. Money talks and the ATP are in danger of thinking more about money than the future and integrity of the sport. Sports Magician will not be sitting on the fence on this issue that is for sure, and hopes that the “experiment” proves to be a failure, so the tour can get back to a sense of consistency.

The ATP believes the move will enable fans to get to see more of the top players in action, provided they will have at least two matches to compete in. But interestingly, the tour’s number one player, Roger Federer, will not be playing any of the round-robin tournaments.

Can Roger Federer be any more dominant? Federer states that his priorities for the season remain retaining the number one ranking and winning Wimbledon (the first Grand Slam he got his hands on). However, in order to differentiate this season from his outstanding last three seasons (particularly the last two), Federer will need to dominate on clay the way he has done everywhere else. In 2006, the boy from Basle came three matches away from arguably the most incredible year any individual or team has had in sport. Losing clay court finals to world number two Rafael Nadal in Monte Carlo, Rome (Federer had two match points) and Roland Garros (the Mecca of clay court tennis) prevented Federer from completing what would have been a historic season that would surely never be equalled and certainly not bettered.

In 2006, Federer was 0-4 on clay against Nadal. He came as close as you can in Rome when he held two match points. Despite beating Nadal since the Roland Garros final on two occasions (Wimbledon & Shanghai), Nadal can still count on a psychological dominance over Federer on clay and one of the more intriguing storylines of 2007 will be whether Federer can break this hold. Hopefully both players will be fit and come the European clay court season for us to be able to sit back, enjoy and find out.

Can Rafael Nadal reverse the slump? It seems absurd to ask such a question of a 20-year-old who has won two Grand Slam titles, reached another Grand Slam final and won six Masters Series events in the past two seasons, and yet the question is being asked by more than a few people. Nadal had a poor second half of 2006 and after reaching the Wimbledon final his season stalled completely and he did not advance past the quarter finals of any tournament until the season ending Masters Cup in Shanghai.

The Spaniard missed last year’s Australian Open, and it will be interesting to see how he fares in Melbourne on the courts which are reportedly to be faster this year. It won’t be long before Nadal is back on clay again, and as he did in 2006, he will face the pressure of having to defend titles in Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Rome and Roland Garros. Will he be beaten on clay this year? Sports Magician believes it will happen, but who will do it and when? Federer is clearly the prime candidate. Post-Wimbledon will be the true test of Nadal’s progression, and all eyes will be on him to see if he has adjusted his style on hard and indoor courts to improve on the poor results he achieved in the latter half of 2006.

(Full article at http://sportsmagician.blogspot.com/ )